Mike Forst, on 16 April 2015 - 02:51 PM, said:
It keeps coming up and I'll keep repeating it: movement archetypes affect two things: hill climbing and the mech's world collision model (that determines what spaces it fits in). They don't affect mobility in any other way. The Gargoyle and Victor still have the Huge movement archetype and have hill climb overrides applied to make them climb like the Large archetype. The King Crab still has the Large archetype with a hill climb override to make it climb like the Huge archetype.
This change you're asking for will not do what you think it does.
Ah, my apologies. I was unclear. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us, though!
To clarify, I believe that a hill climb override is
exactly what should happen for the Quickdraw (well, that and a complete model rework, but one of those things is actually possible and the other is...less so). The 'Mech is canonically an agile guerrilla fighter which even has TT rulebook quirks expanding its agility due to its unusual actuator construction. The fact that the machine climbs hills no more effectively than a STALKER is outrageous.
The fact that the Quickdraw is the size of a Banshee is
enormously disadvantageous in this game. As well, the 60-ton weight bracket is itself one of the most disadvantaged places to be in the entire MWO weight spectrum, especially for an agility-focused 'Mech such as this - your jump jets suddenly cost twice the tonnage, you're in the 50% heavy queue so you can't get games in less than twenty minutes, you need twenty more points of engine rating minimum (on average) to get to the same speed as a 55-ton 'Mech...and yet you have only five extra tons over the 55-ton overlords with which to pay for the bigger engine and twice-as-heavy jump jets you need
just to keep up with the mediums. You get an absolute minimum of additional armor protection, which also costs you part of those five extra tons which kick you over all kinds of nasty thresholds, and not all that much extra structure, either. By the time a Quickdraw finishes compensating for all the things it needs to throw weight at just to keep up with a Shadow Hawk, it has
less tonnage for armament and combat equipment than a Shadow Hawk does.
And then there's this:
The Quickdraw's TRO art has narrow, almost blade-like legs and a fairly slender frame It's stocky, yes, but it's a narrow stocky (which makes sense if you think about it hard enough!
), without a great deal of space between its shoulders. The whole 'Mech is relatively narrow, with its torso weapons packed close to its centerline and not a lot of space beyond those weapons.
And then...
What happened? This thing is bigger than half the game's assault 'Mechs. It keeps the boxing-glove forearms the TRO art had, but now it's also broad as all hell and its legs are
enormous. People didn't start calling it the Quicklegged on a lark. I understand that it was given some reasonably hefty armor/structure quirks to try and make up for the fact that it's ludicrously, outrageously oversized, but the Quickdraw isn't supposed to be a durable slugger. That's the Thunderbolt's job. This thing is supposed to be quick and maneuverable - as much so as a sixty-ton 'Mech can be, anyways. I mean come on. It says right here, in its Sarna page:
Sarna.net Quickdraw article said:
The second were its highly-articulate ankle actuators, which not only allowed the Quickdraw keep its footing more easily on difficult terrain such as gravel, mud and ice, but also traverse gradients up to 12° steeper than other 'Mechs of its weight class.
The 'Mech comes canonically equipped with a hill climb override. It is designed specifically in the original TT lore to be able to climb steeper hills than other machines. If any 'Mech in the game deserves a hill climb override it's the Quickdraw.
C'mon, Piranha. This poor thing needs all the help it can get. A hill climb override to Medium archetype might not make it magically a T1 chassis...but it would sure as shootin' make it feel a whole lot more like a Quickdraw.
Edited by 1453 R, 16 April 2015 - 06:45 PM.